Central African Republic

The Central African Republic (CAR) is a landlocked country in Central Africa with its capital at Bangui. Settled by France in 1894, the CAR was a part of French Equatorial Africa until 1960, when it declared its independence. President Jean-Bedel Bokassa, who was elected to power in 1966 as the CAR's second president, declared himself Emperor of the "Central African Empire" in 1976, reigning until his 1979 overthrow in a military coup led by David Dacko. From the 1960s to the 1990s, the CAR was ruled by a series of autocratic leaders, and its first democratically-elected leader, Ange-Felix Patasse, was himself overthrown in a military coup in 2003. Francois Bozize, the man who seized power from Patasse, was opposed by democratic forces in the Central African Republic Bush War of 2004-2007 and the Central African Republic Civil War of 2012, which led to Bozize's overthrow, the religious cleansing of Muslims in the CAR, and massive population displacement. In 2014, the CAR had a population of 4,709,000 people, with 80.3% being Christian, 15% Muslim, and 4.7% animist or other.